Immigrant Council of Ireland calls for reform of Irish citizenship process

Photo shoot for the Immigrant Council of Ireland outside the houses of Irish ParliamentGoogle Images

Due to an influx of traffic in 2012, the Immigrant Council of Ireland is suggesting that the citizenship process in Ireland should be reformed.

RTE reports that the Immigrant Council of Ireland saw an increased amount of people looking for citizenship information, thus increasing the need for a more modern citizenship process.

In 2012, the Immigrant Council said that about two thirds of the 64,000 visitors to their website were first time visitors. Additionally, the Council responded to more than 5,200 phone inquiries in the past year with people from 145 countries contacting its helpline.

Among the most popular needs for Irish citizenship were students finishing their studies who wanted to stay longer on a work visa, as well as people looking to rejoin their families.

Denise Charlton, the Council's Chief Executive, said the figures underlined the urgent requirement for the introduction of a modern, efficient and transparent system to respond to the needs of people who were already calling Ireland home.

She called for reform of the system, saying that immigrants who were already contributing to Ireland were greatly concerned by the over reliance on discretionary decisions with a lack of clear guidelines and an independent appeals process.